It is the most frustrating situation in Sim Racing, and if you’ve raced enough, you have surely experienced it: You have much better pace than the car ahead. You know it, you can feel it. You are capable of gaining up to a second per lap on them. You catch their rear bumper with ease, but then… you get stuck.
Three laps pass, then five. You can feel how slow the other driver is, you feel the anxiety of wanting to pass them immediately, but you simply cannot find the gap. You try everything: braking later, glued to their gearbox, but you end up having to lift or, worse, attempting a desperate divebomb that ends in disaster for both of you.
The problem isn’t the track, nor is it the other driver. The problem is your corner entry strategy.
The “Fast Entry” Trap
Logic tells us that to overtake, you have to go fast. And to go fast, you have to brake late. However, when you are chasing a slower car, this mindset is your worst enemy.
The “cycle of disaster” described by this expert works like this:
- You are behind the slower driver, but not close enough to make a move in the braking zone.
- They brake early (because they are slower). You take advantage to brake late and gain meters, getting right up to their rear bumper.
- Here is the problem: They are slow at the apex (mid-corner). Because you entered too fast and are glued to them, you are forced to over-brake or lift abruptly to avoid hitting them.
- Result: They accelerate freely. You, however, have to react to their acceleration after having lost all your momentum.
“You are always catching on the entry of the corner, and always losing on the exit.”
By sticking to them on entry, you have robbed yourself of the space needed to accelerate earlier. Basically, you are defending against your own overtake.
Stop Trying to Win the Position on Entry
The key to breaking this cycle of frustration can be summed up in one sentence: Leave yourself space to drive during the exit.
Instead of trying to eat up ground by braking at the limit, the expert’s advice is counter-intuitive but lethally effective: Calm the corner.
- Brake earlier or at the same time as them: Don’t try to gain meters in the braking zone if you aren’t going to pass there.
- Maintain a small gap: Your goal is for your flow through the corner to be smooth. By leaving a small gap, you don’t have to react to their excessive braking at the apex.
- Prepare the exit: By having that extra space, you can see when they start to accelerate and, most importantly, you can get on the throttle earlier and more decisively than them.
Why This Guarantees the Overtake
By applying this technique, you change the dynamic completely. Instead of being glued to their bumper and having to brake because they are slow, you use that space to generate superior exit speed.
You will come out of the corner with more traction and a higher top speed. This, added to the slipstream, will mean that on the following straight you will pass them easily before reaching the next braking zone, or at least it will allow you to pull alongside them with total safety.
Sacrifice the entry, win the exit, and you will see how those “roadblock” drivers stop being a problem and become just another gained position.
- Remember, you can join iRacing clicking here.
See you on the track!
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